by Stephen Fry
Ludicrous for one so young to be so self-confident, and yet no one could deny the lad had presence. The Trojans joined Podarces in kneeling down and casting up a prayer to the gods.
So it was that, from that day on, Podarces led his people and directed the rebuilding of their ruined city. He did not mind that everyone now called him ‘the One Who Was Bought’, which in the Trojan language was PRIAM. In time that became his name.
We will leave young Priam, standing proud amongst the ashes and rubble of Troy, and travel over the sea to Greece. Things worth taking note of are happening there.
THE BROTHERS
We left Telamon sailing to Salamis with his new bride Hesione. Telamon and his family play an important enough role in the story of Troy to justify our going back in time to look at their origins. Once again I charge you not to remember every detail, but following these stories – these ‘origin stories’ as we might call them now – is worthwhile and enough will stick in the memory as we go. Besides, they are excellent stories.
Telamon and his brother PELEUS grew up on the island of Aegina, a prosperous naval and commercial power situated in the Saronic Gulf, the bay that lies between the Argolid to the west and Attica, Athens and mainland Greece to the east.fn6 Their father AEACUS, the island’s founder king, was a son of Zeus and Aegina, a water nymph who gave the island its name. The boys grew up in the royal palace as loyally close as brothers can happily be, and as arrogantly entitled as princely grandsons of Zeus can less happily be. Their mother ENDEIS, a daughter of the centaur CHIRON and the nymph Chariclo, doted on them, and a future of comfort and easy power seemed assured. As usual, the Fates had other ideas.
King Aeacus turned away from Endeis and consorted with the sea nymph PSAMATHE, who presented him with a son, PHOCUS. As ageing fathers will, King Aeacus doted on his youngest child, the ‘consolation for my old age’ as he lovingly called him. Phocus grew into a popular and athletic boy, the darling of the palace. Endeis could not abide the role of neglected first wife and became consumed by a jealous hatred of Psamathe and her child, a jealousy shared by the boy’s half-brothers, Telamon and Peleus, now in their early twenties.
‘Look at him, swaggering around the place as if he owned it …’ hissed Endeis, as she and her sons, from behind a column, watched Phocus march down a corridor, making trumpet noises.
‘If father gets his way, he will own it …’ said Telamon.
‘Loathsome little brat …’ muttered Peleus. ‘Someone should teach him a lesson.’
‘We can do more than that,’ said Endeis. She lowered her voice to a whisper. ‘Aeacus is planning a pentathlon in honour of Artemis. I think we should persuade little Phocus to enter. Now listen …’
Phocus had never been more excited about anything. A pentathlon! And his big brothers were urging him to take part. He had always imagined that they didn’t like him very much. Perhaps it was because he had been too young to join in with their hunting expeditions. This must be a sign that they now thought him grown up enough.
‘You’ll need to practise,’ Peleus warned.
‘Oh yes,’ said Telamon. ‘We don’t want you to make a fool of yourself in front of the king and the court.’
‘I won’t let you down,’ said Phocus earnestly. ‘I’ll practise every hour of every day, I promise.’
From the shelter of a stand of trees Telamon and Peleus watched their little brother throwing his discus in a field outside the palace walls. He was disconcertingly good.
‘How can someone that size throw it so far?’ asked Telamon.
Peleus held up his own discus and weighed it in his hands. ‘I can throw further,’ he said. Taking aim, he turned, twisted his body round and released. The discus flew flat and fast through the air and struck Phocus on the back of the head. The boy went down without a sound.
The brothers raced to the spot. Phocus was quite dead.
‘An accident,’ whispered the panicked Telamon. ‘We were all practising and he ran in front of your throw.’
‘I don’t know,’ said Peleus, white in the face. ‘Will we be believed? The whole court knows how much we resented him.’
They gazed down at the body, exchanged glances, nodded and grasped each other firmly by the forearms by way of sealing an unspoken bond. Twenty minutes later they were spreading dried leaves and twigs over the bare earth beneath which their young half-brother’s body lay buried.
When word spread around the palace and grounds that Prince Phocus was missing, no one could have been more anxious to find him than Endeis and her sons. While Endeis patted the hand of her hated rival Psamathe and poured words of hope into her ear, Telamon and Peleus noisily joined the hue and cry.
King Aeacus had climbed onto the roof of the palace and from this high vantage point he called down in an ever more frantic voice the name of his beloved young son into the fields and woods on all sides. He was interrupted by a shy cough. A dusty and begrimed old slave was approaching him.
‘What are you doing up here?’
The old slave bowed low. ‘Forgive me, lord king, I know where the young prince is.’
‘Where?’
‘I come up to these roofs every day, your majesty. It’s my job to keep everything watertight with thatch and pitch. Around noontide I chanced to look down and I saw it. I saw it all.’
The roofer led the king to the spot where Phocus was buried. Peleus and Telamon were summoned, confessed their crime and found themselves banished from the kingdom of their birth.
TELAMON IN EXILE
Telamon made his way to the nearby island of Salamis, ruled over by King CYCHREUS, whose mother, the sea nymph Salamis, gave the island its name.fn7 Cychreus took a liking to Telamon and – as only kings, priests and immortals could – he offered to cleanse him of his abominable blood crime of fratricide.fn8 This done, he appointed Telamon his heir, giving him his daughter Glauce’s hand in marriage. In due course Glauce presented her husband with a baby son of magnificent size, weight and lustiness, whom they named AJAX, a name which would one day be known in every corner of the world (usually prefixed by the words ‘the mighty’).fn9
We have already followed Telamon’s later adventures and seen how he helped Heracles revenge himself on Laomedon. After the sack of Troy and the slaughter of the entire Trojan royal male line (save Priam), Telamon returned to Salamis with his prize, Hesione, by whom he had another son, TEUCER, who was to make a name for himself as the greatest of the Greek archers.fn10
We are more or less done with Telamon now. He featured as a kind of lieutenant to great heroes like Jason, Meleager and Heracles, but his importance to us in the telling of the tale of Troy is in his fathering of those two sons, Ajax and Teucer. The same could be said of his brother Peleus. But the son of Peleus was so much more important to our story, and the manner of his birth so remarkable, that Peleus himself deserves more attention.
PELEUS IN EXILE
When the brothers were banished from Aegina for the killing of young Prince Phocus, Peleus went further afield than Telamon. He crossed the Greek mainland and travelled north to the small kingdom of Phthia in Aeolia. It was no random choice: these were ancestral lands. We must go back in time to find out the connection between Aegina in the south and Phthia in the north.
You will recall that Peleus’s father Aeacus was the son of Zeus and the sea nymph Aegina. HERA, as ever ragingly jealous of her husband’s affairs, had waited until Aeacus grew to manhood before sending a plague to the island which wiped out the human population, all but Aeacus.
Alone and unhappy, Aeacus wandered his island praying to his father Zeus for help. Falling into a sleep under a tree he was awoken by a column of ants marching over his face. He looked around and saw a whole colony swarming about him.
‘Father Zeus!’ he cried out. ‘Only let there be as many mortals to keep me company on this island as there are ants on this tree.’
He caught Zeus in a good mood. In answer to his son’s prayer the King of the Gods transfo
rmed the ants into people, whom Aeacus called the Myrmidons after myrmex, the Greek word for ant. In time most of the Myrmidons left Aegina and made their home in Phthia. And that is the reason Peleus chose Phthia as a place for exile and expiation: to be with the Myrmidons.fn11
EURYTION, Phthia’s king, welcomed Peleus and – just as Cychreus of Salamis had done for Telamon – cleansed him of his crime, appointed him heir, and gave him his daughter in marriage.
Marriage to the king’s daughter ANTIGONE;fn12 the birth of a girl, Polydora; high status in Phthia as heir apparent to the throne of the Myrmidons; purification from his crime – things looked good for Peleus. But he and Telamon were made of energetic, restless material, and the settled domesticity of married life suited neither. Over the coming years they distinguished themselves on board the Argo in the quest for the Golden Fleece and afterwards, like so many of the Argonaut veterans, they flocked to Calydon to join in the hunt for the monstrous boar that Artemis had sent to ravage the countryside there.fn13 In the heat of that legendary chase, Peleus’s spear went wide and fatally wounded his father-in-law Eurytion. Accident or no accident, this was another blood crime, another kin-slaying, and Peleus once more found himself in need of royal expiation.
The king who offered to cleanse him this time was ACASTUS, the son of Jason’s old enemy Pelias; and so now it was to Acastus’s Aeolian kingdom of Iolcos that Peleus made his way.fn14 Bear with me, reader.
By this time, Peleus had outgrown the unappealing characteristics that had caused him to play so monstrous a part in the killing of his young half-brother Phocus, and he was now recognized by all to be a modest, amiable and charming man. So modest, so charming, so amiable – and so handsome too – that it was not long before Acastus’s wife ASTYDAMEIA found herself overcome by desire for Peleus. She came to his bedchamber one night and did everything she could to seduce him, but with no success. His sense of propriety as a guest and friend of Acastus froze him in horror as she repeatedly pushed her body against his. Stung by the rejection, Astydameia turned her love to hate.
Those of you who know the story of Bellerophon and Stheneboea, or of THESEUS’s son Hippolytus and Phaedra,fn15 or indeed that of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife in the book of Genesis, will be familiar with the mytheme or recurrent trope of the ‘woman scorned’ and how it inevitably unwinds.
Hot with mortification, Astydameia sent a message to Peleus’s wife Antigone, who was home in Phthia raising their daughter Polydora.
‘Antigone, this is to advise you that your husband Peleus, whom you thought so faithful, is now betrothed to my stepdaughter Sterope. I can imagine how painful for you this news must be. Peleus has made no secret of his distaste for you. Your figure since giving birth, he tells the court, is now as plump and squashy as an overripe fig and he cannot bear the sight of you. It is as well you hear this from me and not from one who wishes you ill. Your friend, Astydameia.’
After Antigone heard this message she went out and hanged herself.
Even such a terrible outcome was not enough for the vengeful Astydameia, who now approached her husband with bowed head and choked sobs.
‘Oh, my husband …’ she began.
‘Whatever is the matter?’ said Acastus.
‘No, I cannot say. No, I cannot …’
‘I command you to tell me what is troubling you.’
The terrible story came tumbling out. How the lustful Peleus had come to her bedchamber and tried to force himself upon her. How she had repulsed the rape and written to advise Antigone of her husband’s faithlessness. How Antigone in her humiliation and grief had taken her own life. How Astydameia had wanted to keep all this from Acastus, who seemed so fond of Peleus … But now he had prised it from her … Oh dear, she hoped she had not done wrong in telling him … ?
Even as Acastus comforted his wife, his mind set itself on an implacable course. He knew he had to be careful, however. It would be an infraction of the sacred laws of hospitality to kill his guest. Not only that, Peleus was a grandson of Zeus. To lay hands upon him would be foolhardy. Nonetheless, Acastus was determined to ensure the death of the wanton and depraved villain who had dared lay hands on his wife.
The next day he and his courtiers took their young guest out on a hunting expedition. In the late afternoon, Peleus, exhausted from the chase, found a grassy bank at the edge of a dark wood and sank into a deep sleep. Signalling for silence from his men, Acastus stole up to him and took his sword, a powerful weapon forged by HEPHAESTUS and given to Peleus’s father by Zeus himself. Acastus hid it in a nearby dungheap and, grinning with delight, he and his men tiptoed away, leaving Peleus locked in sleep. Acastus knew that at night the region was made lethally dangerous by marauding centaurs, half horse, half human, who would surely find Peleus and kill him.
Sure enough, not two hours later a herd of wild centaurs on the fringe of the wood sniffed the air and detected the scent of a human.
Now, everyone has two grandfathers.fn16 On his father’s side Peleus had Zeus and on his mother’s side the wise, learned and noble Chiron, the immortal centaur who had been tutor to ASCLEPIUS and Jason.fn17 It happened, that evening, that Chiron was amongst the band of centaurs that emerged from the woods and cantered towards the sleeping Peleus. Chiron overtook the others at a gallop, awoke Peleus and recovered his sword. After they had seen off the other centaurs, they embraced. Peleus was quite Chiron’s favourite grandson.
‘I have watched over you,’ said the centaur. ‘You have been the victim of a great wrong.’
Peleus learned from Chiron what Astydameia had done and wept with sorrow for the loss of Antigone and with rage at the injustice that had been practised on him. He went back to Phthia, erected a tomb for his dead wife and returned to Iolcos with an army of his best Phthian soldiers – the elite Myrmidons. Acastus was killed, the wicked Astydameia cut into pieces, and Thessalus – the son of Peleus’s old friend Jason – installed on the throne. From that point on, Aeolia became known as Thessaly, as it is to this day.
Rather than return to Phthia and live the life of a prince and heir, Peleus accepted an offer from Chiron to spend time with him in his mountain cave in order to learn at the feet of that renowned centaur.fn18 There was much wisdom and knowledge that Chiron could impart, and life on Mount Pelion proceeded for a year or so in a quiet rhythm. But Chiron began to detect in Peleus a new restlessness that amounted to something like sorrow.
‘Something disturbs you,’ he said one evening. ‘Tell me what it is. You are not attending to your studies with the joy and zeal that you once did. You gaze down onto the sea and there is a lost look in your eyes. Do you still grieve for your Antigone?’
Peleus turned to face him. ‘I have to confess that I do not,’ he said. ‘It is another love.’
‘But you have hardly seen anyone for a year.’
‘I saw her a long time ago. When I was sailing with Jason. But I have never forgotten her.’
‘Tell me.’
‘Oh, it is so foolish. I was leaning on the stern of the Argo one night. Have you ever seen how a green light shines from the sea sometimes?’
‘I am not a practised sailor,’ said Chiron.
‘No, of course.’ Peleus smiled at the thought of Chiron’s hoofs clattering and skidding on a slippery deck. ‘Well, take it from me, sometimes you see at night an enchanted light glow in the water.’
‘Sea nymphs, no doubt.’
‘No doubt. I think perhaps that particular night we were sailing over the sea palace of Poseidon himself. The lights were especially bright. I leaned out further and a creature rose up from the water. I have never seen anything or anyone so beautiful.’
‘Ah.’
‘She stared at me and I stared back. It seemed like an age. And then a dolphin broke the surface. The spell was gone and she dropped back down into the deep. I was in a dream …’ Peleus stopped, reliving the moment.
Chiron waited. He was sure there must be more to come.
‘You may know,�
� Peleus said at last, ‘that the figurehead on the prow-beak of the Argo was carved out of timber that was taken from the sacred oak grove of Dodona and was endowed with the gift of prophecy?’
Chiron bowed his head to show that he was familiar with this well-known truth.
‘I consulted it. “Who was that creature?” I asked. “Who was she?” The figurehead replied, “Why, who else but THETIS, your future bride?” That was all the answer I could get. Thetis. I have asked around. Priests and wise men are agreed that there is a sea nymph of that name. But who is she, Chiron? Every night when I sleep, the image of her rises up before me just as she did from the waves.’
‘Thetis, you say?’
‘Well? Have you heard of her?’
‘Heard of her? We are family. Cousins, I suppose you would call it. We have in common TETHYS as a grandmother.’fn19
‘Is she … ?’
‘Thetis is as beautiful and desirable as you remember. All the gods have at one time or another fallen for her matchless graces –’
‘I knew it,’ groaned Peleus.
‘Let me finish,’ said Chiron. ‘All the gods have at one time fallen under the spell of her beauty, Zeus in particular. But many years ago, mankind’s champion, the Titan PROMETHEUS, revealed a prophecy about Thetis that has stopped all gods and demigods from daring to approach her.’
‘There is a curse?’
‘For the gods it would be a heavy curse indeed, but not perhaps for you, a mortal. Prometheus foretold that any son born of Thetis would grow up to be greater than his father. You can imagine, I am sure, that no Olympian wishes to father a son who might eclipse, or perhaps depose, them. Ouranos, the first Lord of the Sky, was overthrown by his son Kronos, who was in turn overthrown by his son Zeus,fn20 who entertains, you may be certain, no desire for the cycle to be repeated. Despite Thetis’s beauty and his own lustful nature, all these years the King of Heaven has let her be. Nor has any other Olympian dared to consort with her.’